Transnational Movement Innovation and Collaboration: Analysis of World Social Forum Networks

In this article we first trace the ideological development and collective framing of the World Social Forum (WSF) as a non-hierarchical gathering for collaboration and networking within the global justice movement. We then analyze the consequences of organizational design, thematic resonance, and technological innovations implemented to produce more open and horizontal collaboration. We do this by conducting two-mode network analysis of organizations that facilitated sessions and workshops during two separate meetings (2003 and 2005) of the WSF in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Our findings indicate that organizational affiliations were less hierarchical in 2005, but we uncover mixed results from analyzing patterns of interaction produced by individual organizations and groups of organizations. Finally, we discuss the implications of such macro-level innovations on the dynamics of multi-organizational fields (collaboration, coalition building, and thematic resonance) and the contributions of such an approach to the study of transnational organizational networks.     

The World Social Forum: the paradoxical quest for strength in plurality

ABSTRACT

In this reflexive essay, I explore how the present and the future of the World Social Forum are intimately related to the ability of its actors to acknowledge and actively address the inherent tensions of open spaces. The former must compose themselves articulating seemingly opposites: ideals shared within the World Social Forum vs. some practices not in accordance with its principles (enhanced in contexts of urgency); claimed horizontality vs. dynamic power relations; internal plurality vs. the need to act in unity to achieve systemic global change, amongst others. I will propose perspectives on how the strength of the WSF can be seen as its capacity to continue building radical hope for a positive shift of paradigm within progressive civil society: from divergences to resilient complementarities.     

Globalization and Social Democracy in the European Periphery: Paradoxes of the Turkish Experience

During the course of the 1990s, center-left and center-right parties around the world have attempted to revise their strategies to be able to cope effectively with the new environment and conditions of globalization. We suggest that the experience of social democracy in Turkey in this context presents a peculiar case, in that the kind of strategy that could have brought electoral success has instead been adopted by the existing center-right government with moderate Islamic identity. The principal social democratic party, in turn, has been unable to transform itself in such a way as to capitalize upon the opportunity space provided by the changing domestic, regional and global context. This paper attempts to account for the peculiar and paradoxical nature of this experience by providing an historical and political–economic analysis of social democracy and its embeddedness in the state-centric and top-down modernization process in Turkey. In order to substantiate its analysis, the paper also focuses on the contrasting electoral victory of the Justice and Development Party (the AKP) over its principal social democratic rival, the Republican People's Party (the CHP).

Durante el curso de los años de 1990, los partidos de centro-izquierda y centro-derecha alrededor del mundo han tratado de revisar sus estrategias para tener la capacidad de lidiar efectivamente con el nuevo medio ambiente y las condiciones de la globalización. Nosotros sugerimos que la experiencia de democracia social en Turquía, en este contexto presenta un caso peculiar y es que el tipo de estrategia que pudo haber logrado la victoria electoral, por lo contrario, ha sido adoptado por el gobierno de centro derecha existente con una identidad islámica moderada. A su vez, el partido social demócrata principal no ha logrado transformarse a sí mismo en tal forma como para capitalizar en las oportunidades proporcionadas por el cambiante contexto doméstico, regional y global. Este documento trata de dar explicación sobre la naturaleza peculiar y paradójica de esta experiencia, proporcionando un análisis histórico y político-económico de la democracia social y su integración en el proceso de modernización centralizado en el estado y desarrollado en Turquía, de arriba hacia abajo. Para respaldar su análisis, el documento también se enfoca en la victoria electoral contrastante del Partido de Justicia y Desarrollo (el AKP, por sus siglas en inglés) sobre su principal rival social demócrata, el Partido Republicano del Pueblo (el CHP, por sus siglas en inglés).     

Global movement dilemmas: transnational representation and impact in the World Social Forum

ABSTRACT

Various social movement debates on organizational design have hinged on the possibility and political usefulness of devising post-representational, a-representational or anti-representational spaces. We analyse organizational options and obstacles that the WSF faces. A denial of representational dynamics may leave internal power and structural imbalances unattended. We raise the question whether the WSF process can intersect the current instances of activism across the planet including the climate justice movement. We explore its changing attitudes toward representational decision-making. Finally, we suggest that the relationship between traditional organization-building and internet-mediated decision-making practices developing at the intersection between the local, the global and the virtual could be debated on the road to the next global WSF, likely to take place in Mexico.     

Introduction: social movements and forums in times of authoritarian capitalism

ABSTRACT

On all continents the enormity of the violence and danger of the times gives rise to multiple new practices of struggle and to conceptual innovations, which seek to serve justice, solidarity, and dignity for all. We explore the possibilities and different worlds intended in the main slogan of the World Social Forum ‘Another world is possible’. During its early years the World Social Forum was characterized by a fair amount of optimism. We know now that most of the high hopes of the movements have not been adequately materialized. The rise of authoritarian leaders and the nexus between capitalism and populism emerging in different parts of the world has created a new context for the attempts to create democratic futures. This collection presents and interrogates a variety of diagnoses of the present and of new strategies for transformative change that are emerging out of the forum process.     

Transnationalism and Diffusion: A Study of the Food Sovereignty Movements in the UK and Canada

Abstract

This paper explores a number of questions surrounding the transnational diffusion of social movements and their ideas through case studies of the food sovereignty movements in the UK and in Canada: How do social movements in one country or world region diffuse to another country or region? How do social movement participants learn about other movements and their ideas in different countries and organize and mobilize around these same ideas while at the same time adapting them to their local context? What are the channels and mechanisms of social movement diffusion? In addressing these questions, the paper contributes to our understanding of the transnational diffusion of social movements and the ways in which social movement participants adopt, interpret, and adapt new ideas, organizational forms, and agendas and causes that originated outside their own countries. It highlights the ways in which groups and communities around the world recontextualize social movement discourses to make them relevant to their own circumstances and to connect their causes and struggles to global movements.     

The Analysis of Duocentric Social Networks: A Primer

Marriages and other intimate partnerships are facilitated or constrained by the social networks within which they are embedded. To date, methods used to assess the social networks of couples have been limited to global ratings of social network characteristics or network data collected from each partner separately. In the current article, the authors offer new tools for expanding on the existing literature by describing methods of collecting and analyzing duocentric social networks, that is, the combined social networks of couples. They provide an overview of the key considerations for measuring duocentric networks, such as how and why to combine separate network interviews with partners into one shared duocentric network, the number of network members to assess, and the implications of different network operationalizations. They illustrate these considerations with analyses of social network data collected from 57 low‐income married couples, presenting visualizations and quantitative measures of network composition and structure.     

Personal Social Networks of Women with Co-Occurring Substance Use and Mental Disorders

ABSTRACT

There has been relatively little examination of the social network resources of women with substance use disorder, and even fewer explorations of women with co-occurring mental disorders, such as anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder. This study explores the nature of co-occurring mental disorders, social network characteristics and perceived social support in 136 women with substance use disorders. Respondents reported small personal networks that contained both supportive and non-supportive people. Relatives did provide social support, but those who used alcohol/drugs were viewed as tending to interact negatively. Women with dual disorders perceived less concrete, emotional, and sobriety support from some network relationships than the women with substance use disorders only. Implications for research and practice are presented.     

Social Networks of Old People in India

Summary

This article presents a comparative analysis of the available research on the social networks of older persons in India. Most of this research has been done in North Indian cities. The research foci of the available studies include network size, core networks and beyond, life course changes in networks, impacts of residency in old-age homes, gender differences, and joint and nuclear family residence. This research is discussed in terms of its policy implications. Because the research demonstrates that social networks are important for the welfare of older Indians, one can conclude that social policy that encourages the maintenance of robust networks throughout the life course may be worth pursuing. One aspect of policy is discussed. The analysis of the relationship between social network and gender suggests that current policies that can be seen as supporting gender inequality in terms of property may have a negative impact on the networks of older women.     

Migrants of Privilege: The Political Transnationalism of Americans in Mexico

This article applies the literature on political transnationalism to the unique case of a growing population of Americans, born and bred in the United States, who are choosing to live in Mexico. With few exceptions, this population, moving from north to south, fits the model of transnational migrants who reside in a country of settlement while maintaining ties, political and otherwise, to their country of origin. They vote in U.S. elections, raise money for U.S. campaigns, meet with U.S. politicians, and form civic organizations dedicated to the values of their homeland all while residing in Mexico. The exceptions in the case, however, point to the need for minor refinements in the literature on transnationalism to take account of a sending state that is privileged in relation to the receiving state and migrants who are privileged relative to their host society. The case also has important political and policy implications given that this population of U.S. emigrants, many of them retirees, is likely to increase in coming years, as is their cross-border political engagement.     

Social Networks and Individual Perceptions: Explaining Differential Participation in Social Movements

This paper seeks to explain differential participation in social movements. It does so by attempting to bridge structural-level and individual-level explanations. We test a number of hypotheses drawn from the social networks and the rationalist perspectives on individual engagement by means of survey data on members of a major organization of the Swiss solidarity movement. Both perspectives find empirical support: the intensity of participation depends both on the embeddedness in social networks and on the individual perceptions of participation, that is, the evaluation of a number of cognitive parameters related to engagement. In particular, to be recruited by an activist and the perceived effectiveness of one's own potential contribution are the best predictors of differential participation. We specify the role of networks for social movements by looking at the nature and content of networks and by distinguishing between three basic functions of networks: structurally connecting prospective participants to an opportunity to participate, socializing them to a protest issue, and shaping their decision to become involved. The latter function implies that the embeddedness in social networks significantly affects the individual perceptions of participation.     

Global Civil Society: The Dialectics of Concept and Reality

This paper maps out the potential of a Gramscian conceptualisation of global civil society for understanding global resistance to neoliberal globalisation and contemporary global governance. First, the principal features of contention between contemporary representations of global civil society in studies of global resistance are examined. A predominant focus on perpetuating the division between normative and empirical conceptualisations is reoriented towards a Gramscian conceptualisation which, it is argued, affirms the emancipative potential of global civil society in global resistance. Initiating a dialogue between concept and reality (Cox, 1999 Cox, R. W. 1999. Civil society at the turn of the millennium: Prospects for an alternative world order. Review of International Studies, 25(1): 3–28. (doi:10.1017/S0260210599000042)[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar])—also referred to as the ‘dialectical nexus’ (Gramsci, 1971 Gramsci, A. 1971. Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci translated by Q. Hoare & G. Nowell Smith (New York: International Publishers; London: Lawrence and Wishart) [Google Scholar])—offers alternative possibilities for the substantive analysis of global civil society in relation to global resistance. This moves Gramscian civil society towards a conceptual grounding which deals with the formation, negotiation and re-negotiation of transversal hegemony and recovers, and emphasises, the role of human agency within the global political economy.

Este artículo expone el potencial de una conceptualización gramsciana de la sociedad civil global, para entender la resistencia global a la globalización neoliberal y la gobernanza global contemporánea. Primero, se han examinado las principales características de controversia entre las representaciones contemporáneas de la sociedad civil global, en los estudios de la resistencia global. Un enfoque predominante en perpetuar la división entre las conceptualizaciones normativas y empíricas, está reorientado hacia una conceptualización gramsciana, de la cual se sostiene, que afirma el potencial tendiente a ser libre de la sociedad civil global, en la resistencia global. Con el inicio de un diálogo entre concepto y realidad (Cox 1999)—también referido como el ‘nexo dialéctico’ (Gramsci, 1971)—ofrece posibilidades alternativas para el análisis sustantivo de la sociedad civil global en relación a la resistencia global. Esto hace avanzar a la sociedad civil gramsciana hacia un fundamento conceptual que se ocupa de la formación, negociación y la renegociación de la hegemonía transversal y recupera y enfatiza el rol de la agencia humana dentro de la economía política global.

为了理解对新自由主义全球化和当代全球治理的全球抵制,本文勾勒全球公民社会的葛兰西主义概念化的潜在意义。第一,在关于全球抵制的研究中,本文探讨了公民社会的当代代表性之间争论的主要特征。主流的聚焦规范和实证的概念化之间分野的固化被重新定位,以趋于葛兰西主义的概念化,此种概念化被认为是肯定了在全球抵制中全球公民社会解放的潜在意义。倡议概念与现实之间的对话（考克斯,1999）——也指向诸如“辩证的相互联系”（Gramsci, 1971）——为与全球抵制有关的、对全球公民社会的实质分析提供了替代的可能性。这使得葛兰西主义的公民社会趋于一种概念性的基础,而这种基础论及横切的霸权的构成、谈判和再谈判,以及复原、强化全球政治经济中的人类行动的作用。

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Эта статья картографирует потенциал концептуализации Грамши мирового гражданского общества для того, чтобы понять глобальное сопротивление неолиберальной глобализации и современное глобальное управление. В первую очередь, рассматриваются главные особенности раздора между современными представлениями глобального гражданского общества в исследованиях глобального сопротивления. Особое внимание, уделяемое сохранению разделения между нормативной и эмпирической концептуализациями будет переориентировано на концептуализацию Грамши, которая, как утверждается, подтверждает освободительный потенциал глобального гражданского общества в глобальном сопротивлении. Инициирование диалога между концепцией и реальностью (Cox, 1999) также называют «диалектической связью» (Грамши, 1971) - предлагаются альтернативные возможности для независимого анализа глобального гражданского общества в связи с глобальными сопротивлением. Это перемещает гражданское общество Грамши к концептуальным основам, которые касаются формирования, переговоров и повторных обсуждений трансверсальной гегемонии и восстановления, и подчеркивает роль человеческой деятельности в рамках глобальной политической экономики.     

Repertoires of Contention and Tactical Diversity in the UK Psychiatric Survivors Movement: The question of appropriation

This paper seeks to advance our understanding of the processes whereby particular techniques of protest are selected from societal 'repertoires of contention'. Empirically, it focuses upon data which have been gathered on activists within mental health movements in the UK. Theoretically, it seeks to make a case for use of the work of Pierre Bourdieu, specifically his concepts of 'habitus', 'capital' and 'field'. The paper is exploratory, and acknowledged to be such. It is argued, however, that the evidence from the mental health movements is sufficiently persuasive to merit further investigation of the usefulness of Bourdieu's approach for analysing processes of repertoire selection.     

New Media and Social Networks: Considerations from Clients in Addictions Treatment

Web-based (2.0) media will play an increasing role in substance abuse treatment. Two focus groups identified initial barriers and potential uses within a population living below the median income. Client suggestions included using different approaches to service delivery based on a person's access to web 2.0 media. Preliminary results indicated that contrary to the staff members' opinions, the majority of clients appeared to have sufficient Internet access and the requisite social networking skills in order to participate in online interventions. Future research should focus on using games as a potential mode of online service delivery, on the potential of the various forms of social networking, and whether classism exists between client and staff perceptions.     

The World Social Forum: Another World Might Be Possible

First, I briefly examine the genesis of debate to define the World Social Forum (WSF) as a contributor to the global justice movement (GJM), since its emergence in Brazil in 2001. I then consider Geoffrey Pleyers' argument identifying a central tension within the WSF, and the GJM in general, between actors seeking to achieve non-domination by expressing anti-power subjectivity and those for whom the path to non-domination lay in strategising and designing counter-powers. Describing what transpired at WSF Dakar 2011and debates since, I question Pleyers' classificatory schema as leading to an unhelpful essentialism. That is, identifying a ‘two paths’ ideal-type and setting out to locate it in the world serves to legitimise one ‘tendency’ of progressive social movements. By contrast with Pleyers' evenly balanced approach—treating of each ‘path’ as possessing the same positive and negative qualities, rather than as qualitatively different moments in the practice of opposing domination—I find that what he calls ‘the path of subjectivity’ might rather be understood as the product of a certain lack of appreciation of the nature of the demands that opposing political tyranny places upon particpants in an organisation or movement.     

The Legacy of Robin M. Williams Jr. in the Short Twenty-First Century

This essay describes Robin M. Williams Jr.'s maturation from a precocious college student to a fully formed sociological researcher by describing various personal and professional encounters with significant events of the twentieth century. I reflect on the ways the historical cataclysms of depression and war galvanized Williams and his peers to work toward radical change, both in their lives and in the world about them. The result was a remarkable societal transformation that improved the lives of ordinary citizens in many and diverse ways. The essay concludes with the hope that sociologists will once again be in the vanguard of social action, as Robin Williams was during his long career of teaching, research, and public criticism.     

How Social Movements Move: From First to Second Wave Developments in the UK Field of Psychiatric Contention1

In this paper I seek to unpack the notion of ‘movement’, addressing the question of what it means to say that social movements ‘move’. The concept of ‘movement’ is often used in social science to refer to change, I note, and this is clearly an appropriate usage in relationship to social movements, which often seek to bring about and/or manifest within themselves social changes. At the same time, however, movements move in the respect that the cultural forms and resources they generate are diffused (they move) across both time and space. The cultural components of a movement move in the way that, for example, a virus moves, between individuals in a ‘vulnerable’ population. The paper explores these ideas by way of an examination of the second wave of radical mental health activism in the UK.     

社会支持网缺失与青年农民工生存困境

青年农民工在城市生活中缺少各种社会支持网络,导致其陷入经济贫困、政治贫困、能力贫困和心理贫困状态,从根本上限制了青年农民工的城市融合。必须通过政府、非政府组织和人际和谐关系三个方面,构建农民工社会支持网,进而实现社会融合和社会和谐。